About the anti-semitism of a wall : on the work of Daniel Libeskind

• This is an impossible story. It is the story of an architect who has to recognise his own failure at the point of transition from idea to building. Elsewhere in this book, Herman Hertzberger explains that he finds architectural theo­rising practically worthless if its author has never seen anything of his own realised in bricks and mortar. This idea played a role for Hertzberger when he was on the competi­tion jury for the extension of the Berlin Museum with a Jewish Museum, and he recom­mended Libeskind as the winner (1989). Libeskind had excelled only in building med­els and installations in which countless literary, historical and philosophical notions have been interwoven in exceedingly complex networks. Although he was seen in architectural circles and promoted himself as a designer with pretensions of realising his plans, Libeskind remained primarily a thinker. The laurels of the Berlin Museum competition gave him the chance to prove himself as a doer too. For Hertzberger it was in any case an excellent opportunity to put all Libeskind's fine words to the test against what he is so good at himself, namely architectural handicraft. Libeskind had to behave like a realist for once - then we would soon find out how well all those beautiful ideas stood up in practice.The ideas remained beautiful; the design proved feasible and is being built, although with countless worrying delays. Hertzberger has at least had his way. But along with the building of Libeskind's first major work, it is very much the question whether the architect himself is at all happy about it. He is now doing justice to his qualification as an architect in practice, but it is becoming clearer and clearer that there is a strange tension between Libeskind's Symbolbedrüftigkeit, his urge to metaphor, and the realisation of an architectural product. What is more, that tension is actually a paradox in which the architect becomes embroiled. Success looks like failure. Or worse still, it is failure masquerading as success. How did this come about? 

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Arkitektur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Architecture (hsv//eng)

Keyword

The Invisible in Architecture

Danile Libeskind

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)